The Sandy Bridge Review: Intel Core i7-2600K, i5-2500K and Core i3-2100 Tested
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 3, 2011 12:01 AM ESTGaming Performance
There's simply no better gaming CPU on the market today than Sandy Bridge. The Core i5 2500K and 2600K top the charts regardless of game. If you're building a new gaming box, you'll want a SNB in it.
Our Fallout 3 test is a quick FRAPS runthrough near the beginning of the game. We're running with a GeForce GTX 280 at 1680 x 1050 and medium quality defaults. There's no AA/AF enabled.
In testing Left 4 Dead we use a custom recorded timedemo. We run on a GeForce GTX 280 at 1680 x 1050 with all quality options set to high. No AA/AF enabled.
Far Cry 2 ships with several built in benchmarks. For this test we use the Playback (Action) demo at 1680 x 1050 in DX9 mode on a GTX 280. The game is set to medium defaults with performance options set to high.
Crysis Warhead also ships with a number of built in benchmarks. Running on a GTX 280 at 1680 x 1050 we run the ambush timedemo with mainstream quality settings. Physics is set to enthusiast however to further stress the CPU.
Our Dragon Age: Origins benchmark begins with a shift to the Radeon HD 5870. From this point on these games are run under our Bench refresh testbed under Windows 7 x64. Our benchmark here is the same thing we ran in our integrated graphics tests - a quick FRAPS walkthrough inside a castle. The game is run at 1680 x 1050 at high quality and texture options.
We're running Dawn of War II's internal benchmark at high quality defaults. Our GPU of choice is a Radeon HD 5870 running at 1680 x 1050.
Our World of Warcraft benchmark is a manual FRAPS runthrough of a lightly populated server with no other player controlled characters around. The frame rates here are higher than you'd see in a real world scenario, but the relative comparison between CPUs is accurate.
We run on a Radeon HD 5870 at 1680 x 1050. We're using WoW's high quality defaults but with weather intensity turned down all the way.
For Starcraft II we're using our heavy CPU test. This is a playback of a 3v3 match where all players gather in the middle of the map for one large, unit-heavy battle. While GPU plays a role here, we're mostly CPU bound. The Radeon HD 5870 is running at 1024 x 768 at medium quality settings to make this an even more pure CPU benchmark.
This is Civ V's built in Late GameView benchmark, the newest addition to our gaming test suite. The benchmark outputs three scores: a full render score, a no-shadow render score and a no-render score. We present the first and the last, acting as a GPU and CPU benchmark respectively.
We're running at 1680 x 1050 with all quality settings set to high. For this test we're using a brand new testbed with 8GB of memory and a GeForce GTX 580.
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Didn't turn out well did it?BSMonitor - Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - link
You'd spend $80 on a 6-core MB ?? LOLIf you buy a 6-core Phenom, likely you'll be in th 140-180 range for a decent MB..
Funny how the cheapers rationalize their cheapness.
zipzoomflyhigh - Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - link
That's not true at all. Most $40-50 AM3 mobo's support X6. If you don't game or overclock, you don't need extra pci-e lanes and extra cooling. Especially for a workstation.Oxford Guy - Monday, January 3, 2011 - link
Yeah, I'm stoked about the new low-level DRM.This is sure to run it fast.
talevski - Thursday, January 6, 2011 - link
i think that amd 880g mainbord with cpu araound 90 dolars plus some 55xx series gpu can do better in terms of encoding decoding video playback games etc. and all that without alot of money spend on inetl new socekets wich you have to trow away when they make the next cpu.So please corect me if i am wrongto anandtech&co
pshen7 - Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - link
The charts and the numbers say it all. This is definitely worth an upgrade for me!Peter Shen, founder Koowie.com
Shifu_V - Saturday, April 16, 2011 - link
Hi everyone, i dicided to build a PC but made an 1 error getting the i7 2600 if anyone is interested in buying one please let me, it's brand new sealed in it original contents.and i dont mind trading it in for a i7 2600k.
and i will match the price maybe even better
My email:vinay_chauhan20042000@yahoo.co.uk
Skott - Monday, January 3, 2011 - link
I'm wondering how supply will be on release day? Often we see new components with low supply and online stores start price gouging from day one. New Egg is particularly known for such. Lets hope supply is very good off the bat. That 2600K looks really appealing to me.evilspoons - Monday, January 3, 2011 - link
One of the local computer stores had Sandy Bridge parts up for sale last week, but they're all gone now save for a few Asus P8P67 standard, pro, and deluxe boards.I wasn't able to see what kind of money they were asking.
This review has convinced me that once the 2600K shows up again it's all I'll need. I was going to wait for socket 2011 but damn, the 2600 is already more than twice as fast in everything than my poor ol' Q6600.